Anwar Soussa Appointed Managing Director of Safaricom’s Ethiopia Unit

Anwar Soussa was on Monday appointed as the Managing Director (MD) of the Global Partnership for Ethiopia (GPE), of the Operating Company in Ethiopia, effective 1st July 2021. 

The Global Partnership for Ethiopia is a  consortium of telecom operators made up of Vodafone, Vodacom, and Safaricom.

Anwar will lead the Ethiopian Operating Company on behalf of the Global Partnership for Ethiopia Consortium. He will be responsible for the execution of the consortium’s goal to bring about transformational economic and social impact in Ethiopia and positively enhance the lives of its over 112 million people.

He will formulate strategies and plans to ensure the delivery of quality and affordable mobile and internet connectivity enabling millions of more Ethiopians to access quality telecom services.

Anwar will report to the Board of the Ethiopia entity and Safaricom PLC CEO.

He is currently the Managing Director of Vodacom DRC and the Chairperson of Vodacash (M-PESA) a position he has held since 2017.

“He has cemented Vodacom DRC as the largest Vodacom operation outside of South Africa by driving major strides in operational performance, crossing the $500M USD in service revenue mark for the first time in 2020,” Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom CEO said in a statement.

Prior to joining Vodacom, Anwar served as the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel in Uganda and Chad. He has also worked in various senior leadership capacities at MTN and Digicel, among other telcos.

Anwar is a Greek national who holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the American College of Greece (Degree) and a master’s degree in Marketing from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.